Preliminary analysis indicates dietary similarities in the prey composition of Hipposideros hypophyllus Kock and Bhat, 1994 (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) and sympatric congeneric species

Much is known about bats from other parts of the globe regarding factors such as homogeneity and heterogeneity of habitats, prey abundance influencing the predator-prey relationship, etc. Sadly, minuscule literature on bat ecology is available for India. The current study investigated diet of the Kolar leaf-nosed bat Hipposideros hypophyllus, a Critically Endangered (CR) insectivorous bat in IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, known only from a single cave where it shares its roosting site with congeneric species, namely Durgadas’s leaf-nosed bat H. durgadasi Khajuria and Schneider’s leaf-nosed bat H. speoris (Schneider), which are Vulnerable (VU) and Least Concerned (LC), respectively. Because Hipposideros hypophyllus is on the brink of extinction with no baseline ecological data available, the study analyzed the dietary compositions of the species. It relied on the morphological cataloguing of post-digested prey fragments in fecal pellets of the species and its congeners. Fresh fecal pellets of all three species of Hipposideros were analyzed to understand morphological differences and prey composition at the only known site for H. hypophyllus, Hanumanahalli village, Kolar district, India, between November 2022 to February 2023. A total of 29,793 prey remnants were examined from all three species belonging to 11 insect orders (Blattodea, Coleoptera, Mantodea, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, Odonata, Orthoptera, and Thysanoptera). All three species of Hipposideros fed mainly on Coleoptera, followed by Diptera and Lepidoptera, showing a strong overlap in their prey composition. Our results warrant a long-term study across seasons and identifying prey to the species level which can provide more detailed understanding and lead to the conservation of Hipposideros hypophyllus, H. durgadasi, and H. speoris.